A blog chronicling my departure from urban life on the east coast to sheep farm and cheese making life on the west coast. Still recounting the meals I have eaten in my new setting, but with more sheep thrown into the mix.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Dinner at Alma de Cuba

Childhood friend and I wiled away the afternoon hours sitting on my deck chatting out our lives. It was a nice chat session. Our evening plan was to meet up with K. and have dinner with him. With a little shifting of start time, we eventually piled into K.'s big car and made our way towards Center City. Because ours was a rather late reservation, we stopped off at K.'s office for drinks. Then walked in the rain to Alma de Cuba. I, of course, had scoped out the menu beforehand, and knew that I was quite interested in trying one of their ceviches...but the chorizo slider appetizer also appealed to me. But before we ordered food, we ordered drinks. I had seen a Hemingway's Daquiri on the online menu, but it was missing from the physical cocktail list. I asked our server if it was still possible to get it. He immediately went down to the bar and asked...and came back with the cocktail. This was great service from my perspective, but while I had simply asked a question, K. and Childhood friend had actual drink orders...so it would really have made more sense to ask them what they wanted too, then go to the bar, and come back with all refreshments at once.

The food was quite good. The pickles that accompanied the chorizo sliders were quite tasty, and the Rainbow ceviche (Tuna, salmon and black bass marinated in lime juice and jalapeno with roasted sweet potato slices) was beautiful to look at and eat. I tried a little of K.'s pork dish, which was crispy on the outside, but tender too.

K. and I had a few rounds of cocktails (Childhood Friend doesn't drink). I think this was a Havana Old Fashioned...Kentucky bourbon, pomegranate seeds, orange, housemade cigar bitters...though I don't remember pomegranate seeds.

Childhood friend ordered dessert in the form of a chocolate cigar, which came complete with a lit match, which I missed the opportunity to photograph.

Then a few photographs outside the establishment.

We then briefly went to the in-the-process-of-shutting-down-for-the-evening R2L, which I didn't even know existed but has quite a significant view of Philadelphia from above. Makes me realize that I don't really get that bird's eye view of Philly pretty much ever. When I lived in Chicago, grad school was in a series of high rise buildings, so every once and a while I would get at least some context of the greater city sprawl.

It was great to see Childhood Friend. We sometimes go expanses of years between our meet-ups, so an August meet-up and then an April one isn't too shabby. This was also the first time K. and I hung out though both of us have worked (in my case lived) in the city for quite some years. A great big thank you goes out to K. for picking us up and providing us such a lovely dinner and evening!